Save cash, energy, the planet

It’s not your imagination: Your electricity bills have been climbing steadily skyward. And as they do, you remember your father’s words: “You think money grows on trees? Turn out the lights!”

With a bit of pruning, that money tree might bloom after all.

What you’re spending

Ever wonder where your money is going? Yes, some is heading down the drain (check your water-heating costs). And you might be surprised how the rest disappears. Real Simple helps you to identify areas where you can save on your energy bill.

Heating and cooling

•Program your thermostat to turn heat down or air conditioning up when you’re out. If your furnace is more than 10 to 15 years old, or your boiler is more than 20 years old, replace it with a model approved by the federal government’s Energy Star program (marked by rating stickers in stores). It will pay for itself in energy savings in five to 10 years.

•Seal your house: Close the fireplace damper; install a timer (available at hardware stores) on the bathroom exhaust fan; seal ductwork.

• Cool your home naturally: Open windows on cool summer nights. Use energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs. (They emit less heat.) Hang washing out to dry, and grill food outside. Install window awnings. Plant deciduous trees on the east and west sides to shade your house and cool it by as much as 20 F.

•Consider switching to a natural-gas water heater (which uses less than half the energy of an electric one), and turn the setting down to 120 F.

Potential savings: About $500 a year.

Real Simple green point: If one household in 10 bought Energy Star-rated heating and cooling equipment, the change in greenhouse-gas emissions would be equivalent to taking 1.5 million cars off the road.

Lighting

•Replace regular incandescent bulbs and fixtures with Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent lights, available at most hardware stores. CFLs cast a warmer glow than the cold, harsh fluoros of old. They cost more than regular bulbs, but they use 70 percent less energy, last much longer (10,000 hours, compared with 750), and look just as good.

•Use task lighting. You wouldn’t refrigerate the whole house to keep your food cold, would you?

•Install dimmers on all bulbs to save energy and extend their life. Timers work well for front-door and security-related lights; sensors, which turn on lights only when needed, are ideal for outdoors. Solar-powered outdoor lights ( www.solarilluminations.com has a wide selection) are an energy-free option.

Potential savings: At least $90 a year.

Real Simple green point: If every American home swapped just five incandescent bulb fixtures for Energy Star CFLs, it would keep 1 trillion pounds of greenhouse gases out of the air and save $6.5 billion in energy costs.

Home electronics

•Unplug DVD players and TVs, or plug them all into a power strip that you can switch off. Sixty to 80 percent of the electricity they use is consumed while they’re idle, powering light displays and “instant on” features.

•Unplug “wall warts,” or plugs attached to a black transformer box (like a cell-phone charger). If they are plugged into an outlet, they suck up electricity whether charging another device or not.

• Ideally, unplug or turn off your computer when it’s not in use. If you can’t do this, use its power-saving sleep mode, which uses 60 to 80 percent less energy than full-power mode.

Potential savings: As much as $175 a year.

Real Simple green point: Using power management on your desktop computer could save 900 kilowatt-hours a year. That amounts to 1,500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of driving a medium-size car from New York to Salt Lake City.

Appliances

•Replace an old refrigerator. One made before 1993 could be costing $140 a year in electricity. Even refrigerators built between 1993 and 2001 cost about $60 a year to run. A new Energy Star-rated model runs on about $20 worth of electricity. A new $600 refrigerator will last for decades and could pay for itself in less than five years.

•Replace a top-loading washing machine with a front-loader, which generally uses 50 percent less energy and a third less water. With those savings, it will pay for itself in six years and should last for 10.